Timon and Pumbaa Bring Park Safety to iPhone

Here's a nice little freebie that popped up recently: Disney's taken those funny little Timon and Pumbaa safety signs from the park security stations and turned them into an iPhone app.

Wild About Safety presents the signage as a light-hearted little safety course. It takes you through about 16 tips--some animated, some not--with voice overs.

The art's unfortunately rather low-res, but it still looks great on a phone screen. No word on the home site about an Android version, but I wouldn't be surprised to see one turn up soon.

The Disneyland Ad Slogan Quiz

Park advertising slogans play a huge part in launching a new ride or event. Some of Disneyland's event-related catch phrases have been more memorable than others, but they're usually quite fun.

As a child, I first noticed the park ads during my family's annual road trip to Anaheim in 1969. I looked out the car window and saw, standing alongside Highway 101, a painting of a large, ominous-looking house accompanied by the words, "The Haunted Mansion is Waiting For You." We were still about three hours from the park, but I'd already started imagining what kind of ghosts we'd encounter.

Here's a quick list of my favorite Disneyland advertising "tag lines" that have appeared on billboards, newspaper ads and television commercials. How many of these catchy little phrases--some very recent, some from years ago--do you remember? Can you identify the event they accompanied? Answers after the next picture.

1) Get Ready to be Floored!

2) The Only Way Out is a Long Way Down.

3) What's Gotten Into the Matterhorn?

4) Resurfacing June 11.

5) Drop In If You Dare.

6) Wish Upon a Brighter Star.

7) Glowing...Glowing...Gone.

8) The Happiest Place on Earth Just Got Happier!

And here's a tough one, as it was directed at the Southern California locals in a huge full-page ad in the L.A. Times back in the 1980's:

9) THE WAIT IS OVER!

The Lived-In Look of Cars Land

Cars Land possesses the uncanny ability to make you forget you're in a theme park -- even though you're surrounded by talking automobiles in a fantasy setting from an animated film. Much of that effect lies in the small touches -- the gritty little details that make fantasy seem real.

Adventureland After Park Closing

When Disneyland's open late, it's always fun to be one of the last riders admitted to Pirates of the Caribbean. When it's over, your park exit route leads through an Adventureland that's been closed for nearly twenty minutes.

The Cars Look Like the Rocks -- Not the Other Way 'Round

Cars Land bursts with hidden little attractions like the Doc Hudson Museum, Mater's Petting Zoo, and these wonderful little Geological Info-stations placed along Cross Street. Just like the kind you find at many of our nation's scenic viewpoints, these displays identify what you're looking at.

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And -- in Cars Land -- the more you look, the more whimsical they get, presenting their mockumentary Ornament Valley geology lessons as straight-faced as can be.

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The best part, and a key to the Cars universe, is learning that -- in this alternate world -- the Cars modeled themselves after their surroundings. The rocks don't look like the cars, the cars look like the rocks.

Radiator Springs Highway Poetry

Mind your speed as you go.
Sheriff's old, but he's not slow.
                            -- Rust-eze

In a tribute to the old Burma-Shave poetry signs that once dotted Route 66, Cars Land includes short poems for guests to discover if they enter or exit Carburetor County via the Pacific Wharf route. The signs replicate the originals' white-on-red color scheme and six-sign sequence.

These nostalgic ads are, of course, presented by Lightning McQueen's official sponsor, Rust-eze Medicated Bumper Ointment.

If I'm not mistaken, these verses also appear in the Cars wing of Walt Disney World's new Art of Animation Resort.